


One Way or Another

by charleybradburies



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds
Genre: BAMF Natasha Romanov, Bandits & Outlaws, Canon - Comics, Canon Character of Color, Character(s) of Color, Community: 1-million-words, Doctors & Physicians, Drinking, Drinking & Talking, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Female Character In Command, Fix-It, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Major Character Injury, Major Character Undeath, Marvel Comics - Freeform, Marvel Universe, Natasha Feels, Not Canon Compliant, Not Really Character Death, Other, POV Alternating, POV Bruce Banner, POV Female Character, POV Male Character, Relationship Discussions, Scheming, Secret Wars (2015), Series Spoilers, Spoilers, Strong Female Characters, Western
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 03:26:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4650486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That song is supposed to be about love or something. Well...this isn't. At least for the most part.</p><p>Don't get into comics, kids. They will hurt you. If it's too late for that, well...</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Way or Another

**Author's Note:**

> I was SO EXCITED FOR THE WESTERN AU and then #2 happened. BUT we did get some badass!Natasha and other ladies (and HeartEyes!Tony and Married!BuckyNat) so I'm running with it.
> 
> (Oh, and this is also partially inspired by the Captain America [prompt](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/1322722.html) for August Rush Day 16.)
> 
> Comments, etc. are appreciated!!! xx
> 
> It would also be great of you to check out my fanfic [giveaway](http://adf.ly/1MsmSv) and this [survey.](http://adf.ly/1Mslwq)
> 
> Thank you for reading ~~and suffering alongside me~~!

Tensions are burning as hot as Stark’s shop by the time their usual group of ladies - and Bobbi’s neighbor Sam - have gathered in the Barnes place - and by the time Missus Barnes asks her friends to help her with a plan for reestablishing order, the tea kettle’s not all that seems to be on fire.

“Are you _quite_ sure Mister Stark hasn’t roped you into drinking with him? Or, absent that, that you’re not ill?” Bobbi yelps, nearly spilling her own drink.

“I’m not _ill,_ Barbara, let _alone_ a drunkard! Besides, you’ve had more than I, so who’s gone mad now!” Natasha snaps back at her.

“Still most likely you, Missus,” Sam says carefully, helping the very pregnant Laura Barton sit down in the seat he’d been in.

“Samuel Wilson, stop callin’ me Missus!” Natasha replies frustratedly.

“Ya still _are_ a Missus, Missus.”

“Well, _Sam,_ I got a name, dammit.”

“Natasha, he’s just try’na be polite,” Bobbi intervenes, knowing everyone’s nerves are high, but it doesn't help.

“We’re in my kitchen! Ain’t nobody need to be unreasonable here!”

“Sheriff Rogers is _dead,_ and we’re gettin’ distracted by titles and try’na be reasonable? The dam of reasonability in this town’s followed the same path as the one o’ the Indians!”

“Yeah, ev’ryone’s worked up ‘bout the _Sheriff,_ ” Natasha huffs, and she speeds out, her dress flailing about behind her and Bobbi knowing better than to follow.

“I know we all love callin’ ourselves good citizens, but there’s gotta be a limit, and keepin’ a dead man walkin’ in your home is just plain foolish,” she says eventually, leaving the door open even as she looks behind herself to see Sam pursing his lips and nodding gently in near-agreement. 

_Course he feels differently. He may as well be a dead man walkin’._

“How ‘bout two?” comes the voice of a breathless, frightened-looking Natasha rushing back to the doorway. 

“Sam, Jan, come with me. Sheriff ain’t dead.”

“I’ll go find the Doc,” Bobbi declares, hugging Natasha before she rushes off in the opposite direction of the others. 

Banner’s not hard to find, nor does he come slowly, but it takes even more to bring a nearly-dead man back to life than any of them could’ve expected, even Doc Banner himself. Rogers stays unconscious through the whole process, which is certainly for the better, as well as what saved his life in the first place. The pigs had thought he was dead, too, and he’s like never to hold a pistol again for it - but the overfull Barnes household, when its Mistress relaxes for the first time since Deputy Barnes’ death, is home indeed to his continuing heartbeat.

+

“I’ll call for a nurse I know. She can help get ‘im cleaned up and all else,” Banner tells Natasha in the dead of night, when he wakes to the light of her candle flickering against the wall of the kitchen and joins her softly.

“You say that like you think I ain’t _been_ with a man before, Doc,” she replies, feigning a smile and sliding a bottle across the table to him, and he decides to let her smile (he does, however, decline whatever alcohol’s in the bottle.)

“Wasn’t what I was thinkin’ of, Missus Barnes, but I suppose that does raise the issue of impropriety.”

“Oh, hell. Not you, too,” she grumbles. 

“Not a man livin’ in this town’s bedded me, and every one o’ you’s acts like there’s a chance the others have. Like it says somethin’ about anybody here.”

“Still wasn’t what I was thinkin’, but...I bet it’s what the Mayor is.”

She doesn’t protest this time, just gives him a curious look.

“You go after ‘im for Rogers, you know what people are gonna think.”

“I know what they think. They think it already. And none of it’s the truth. Not one bit, Doc.”

“So _what’s_ the truth, then, Missus Barnes?”

“The truth is, I loved my husband. I followed him here, you know that? _Nobody_ knows that. I ain’t got no more life out here than he did, ‘fore we came. And I stayed here after he was killed because I don’t go down without a fight, Doc. I ain’t gonna sit pretty and let some...some _big-shot_ think he can run this town on my watch.”

She takes a concerningly long drink.

“Mayor thinks Rogers, the Indians, even you and Stark and Urich, you’re all _threats._ And us? The _women_? The wives of the men he threatens and kills? Doesn’t stop to think about us. Doesn’t stop to think maybe _we_ know how to shoot. Doesn’t know that we know what the word 'revenge' means, let alone how to get it. And you know what the truth is about revenge, Doc?" 

She smirks, and Doctor Banner can see the remark a mile away...but what exactly it means, he's yet to know.

**"I’m gonna get it.”**


End file.
